Episode 2 (S2)
Characters In Order of Appearance *Eiichiro Maruo *Eiichiro Maruo *Krishna Ramesh *Atsushi Taira *Marcia O'Brien *Kevin Morland *Mike Mcguire *Pedro *Alex O'Brien *Soji Ike *Christopher Summary Eiichiro has starting to get used with the heavy shots of his opponents and has learned the two-step method as well. But as he continues to lose on every match, he is starting to feel discourage. With the advice of Alex, Coach Kevin and Coach Mike, and his routine, he has starting to regain his confidence and earns his first win in Florida. Synopsis While Eiichiro is resting, Marcia asks him the reason of his precise notes even though he lost the match and he seems to be satisfied even though he lost the match. For Eiichiro, he feels happy that he got to play against an exceptional player like her brother. Eiichiro excuses himself to refill his water bottle and gets to meet Coach Mike in order to have a talk after dinner. After the break, Eiichiro plays another two matches and lost. At his meeting with Coach Mike, they review Eiichiro's analysis during his matches and determine the appropriate counter for it. While Coach Mike suggests to improve speed and power to beat it, Eiichiro decides to focus on the control. Coach Mike hesitates a little on Eiichiro's suggestion but he decides to pursue it and asks someone for an appropriate training menu for it. At their dorm, Eiichiro is surprised to see Alex in a bad mood as he was totally dominated by Ike in their match. As the other three decide to rest for the day, Eiichiro continues to formulate strategies. During breakfast, Coach Mike gives Eiichiro the training plan through Marcia which focuses on improving control. The training plan has 5 parts in which the first three are the same from what Eiichiro does in Japan. The other two focuses on strengthening the lower body and reinforcement of control based on experiences. During Eiichiro's practice match against Pedro, he gets an advice from Coach Kevin that he has to try not to look at his hands while hitting the ball and instead, he has to look at his opponent and the whole court. Eiichiro loses the match again but he has started to get used of this advice. The following days seem bad for Eiichiro. He is getting used with the heavy shots and two-step method. He is also starting to have a close match against his opponent. But as he still loses his matches, he is starting to feel frustrated. Noticing Eiichiro's dilemma, Alex gives advice to Eiichiro - to believe in yourself. Coach Kevin also comments that while Eiichiro is, indeed, improving in terms of technique, he has to overcome his losing habit. Coach Mike tells Eiichiro the cause of his losing habit and how to overcome it - the same advice Alex gave to him. Now that Eiichiro is aware of the cause, he is starting to think on how he will able to regain his instincts' confidence. After he loses two games against Pedro, he is started to be discouraged again as he stumbles due to his loose shoelace and his strings are messed up. But after fixing his shoelace and his strings, he manages to hit a good shot which surprises him. After fixing his strings again and taking a deep breath, he manages to hit a good shot again. While Eiichiro finds it superstitious, he decides to trust it and does it repetitively. Turns out, he is doing a routine which actually helps in maintaining a constant state of mind and consistent movement. As Eiichiro continues this routine, he does not use too much power anymore and has lessen his mistakes as well. He has also starting to regain his confidence as well. With this, he manages to break Pedro's service games and finally, gets his first win in Florida. Manga & Anime Differences * The scenes only present in the manga: ** Every time Atsushi is asked to translate (i.e.: what was written to the envelope Eiichiro received from Marcia) ** When Eiichiro is finding his own method to control based on personal experience, Eiichiro considers Iwaki's technique as basis. ** Alex's comments regarding on how Eiichiro managed to reach his current level when he started playing tennis at the age of 15. ** Eiichiro's observation during his match against Pedro on how he managed to do last minute change on his judgment when he looked at his opponent's movement. ** The events during Day 3 and Day 4. ** During 9th day when Atsushi comments that Eiichiro's mood is getting bad. ** How Alex actually cheers up Eiichiro using simple English. ** Eiichiro's comments on his experience before when he often lost on the third round. ** Eiichiro being asked by Coach Kevin the reason behind Eiichiro's "decrease in motivation". * The scenes only present in the anime: ** During Eiichiro's 8th day, he had match against Roger. * The box that shows Eiichiro's aim during his second match against Christopher in Day 8. * When Alex cheers up Eiichiro, Believe in yourself is mentioned last in the manga while in the anime, it is mentioned first. * When Coach Kevin tells Eiichiro about Eiichiro's losing habit, he talks about it during meeting time (through Atsushi) in the manga while he talks about it during breaks in the court in the anime. * When Eiichiro is going to the monitor room as instructed by Coach Kevin, ** in the manga, he accidentally bumps Marcia because he was too busy thinking about his "losing habit". When he was about to leave, Marcia hits him at the back to cheer him up. Also, Marcia has her bag with her. ** in the anime, as he is too occupied regarding on his losing habit, he simply ignores Marcia, causing Marcia to hit him at the back to cheer him up. Also, Marcia does not have any bag. Navigation Category:Florida Tennis Academy Arc Category:Season 2 Category:Volume 1 (DVD) (S2)